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The shortages could hardly come at a worse time for India; the U.S. is now using its Public Law 480 "Food for Peace" as leverage to coax recipient nations toward wiser economic policies (see THE NATION). Though Indian Minister of Food Chidambaram Subramaniam desperately wants a new long-term U.S. commitment on grain shipments, Washington insists on delivering only on a month-by-month basis until India presents convincing proof that its next five-year plan will modernize its famine-prone farm system. And though Washington won't say so, it may well be that no long-term agreement for U.S. wheat will be forthcoming until India complies with the United Nations order to pull back its troops from the truce line along the Pakistan border and show some sign of interest in a settlement of the Kashmir question.